Highly directed forms of energy found in a wide range of applications—from photovoltaics to thermoelectrics to microprocessors—convert ultimately to thermal energy. A five-week course on heat transfer in nanomaterials will be offered online for the first time by Purdue University Professor Tim Fisher beginning March 18.

The course will provide a treatment of the transport of thermal energy by conduction in natural and fabricated structures by three carriers, electrons, phonons, molecules, from basic principles; develop thermal transport principles from the bottom up; introduce a common Landauer framework for heat flow; investigate realistic physical issues including quantum of thermal conductance, carrier scattering, and interface boundary resistances; and demonstrate extensions to confined and bulk thermal behavior.  Like other courses presented by nanoHUB-U, the Thermal Energy course offers an in-depth treatment of the fundamentals yet is designed to be accessible to learners from any branch of science or engineering.

A link to the scientific overview video about the course: http://www.nanohub.org/resources/16141

For more information and to register: http://www.nanohub.org/u